Unknown Side Effect 3c/?
anonymous
April 26 2012, 02:40:42 UTC
“Atlas!” Garrus yelled after Victus called for more time.
Shepard caught sight of a heavy weapon that had been left on the ground - it looked like a Hydra. She scrambled out of cover to grab it and threw herself behind a pillar for cover. Garrus and Liara shouldn't have to take care of that thing alone. Thank God for thrown-out weapons.
She stepped out of cover so that the weapon could target the Atlas clanking its way towards Liara, and she started to charge it. The Hydra shot a blast like a cannon that threw Shepard to the ground as her abdomen clenched and pain sprouted again. She wheezed, trying to sit up and crawl back into cover.
Liara and Garrus shouted at her. Even Chakwas spoke up on her comm, “Commander.”
“I'm okay,” Shepard said over the radio, sitting and wiping sweat from her brow with an armored wrist. “I'm in cover.” She looked over her shoulder to see troops dropping out of a shuttle on the far left of the area. “How we doing, Lieutenant?”
“Overriding the bypass now, Commander,” Victus replied, strain and worry laced in his voice.
Shepard's omni-tool blinked and flashed a red warning that Liara required medical attention. She realized that Liara was directly underneath the shuttle. What the hell is she doing over there? Shepard thought, pushing the key that would disperse medi-gel in Liara's suit. Her tool just beeped negatively at her. “Garrus!” Shepard shouted on the comm. “I can't get her. I'm all out of medi-gel.”
Garrus growled, “Shit! You've been using that much?!”
“I... I hadn't noticed. Just go get her!” Shepard tried to give him cover fire as he ran and rolled his way to Liara, but the pain was back, reeking havoc on her insides. She focused on breathing, ignoring the pain; Garrus had to get to her.
Garrus slammed his bayonet on the end of his rifle into the trooper about to smash in Liara's head. He went back for Liara, pressing a medi-gel pack into the slot on her wrist that would manually disperse it. Liara groaned and rolled over, throwing a Singularity at the man trying to sneak up on Garrus.
Shepard watched them take on the last two remaining Cerberus soldiers. She could only wish that more weren't sent in.
“Commander! Firewall's down. I'm in!”
Shepard sighed in relief to hear Victus say that. She slowly stood, shaky on her feet as the constant barrage of cramping and pain was wearing her out. She winced at Victus cursing over the comm, informing her that Cerberus had hacked the mechanism and it was set to detonate. How much time? “Disarm it,” she told him uselessly, near-limping her way to him.
“No time,” was the answer he gave her. “I have to separate the trigger from the bomb. Now!”
Liara was still shooting at the few Cerberus troops dropping in, but Garrus helped Shepard onto the ledge with Victus before he returned to Liara.
“Cover me,” Victus said. He looked up at the bomb, made a decision, and grabbed the ladder on one of its supports to crawl to the top.
Shepard could only sit and watch as Liara and Garrus kept Cerberus back and Victus did something at the very top of the bomb to keep it from going off. She curled her hand into a fist against the wall beside her and whined in frustration over yet another painful cramp hitting her. She was a soldier; she was supposed to fight through pain like this. It wasn't the worst pain she had ever felt, but she had never felt anything like it before.
A loud clank behind her made her twist around to see Victus hanging off of a latch at the top. “Lieutenant!” She cried out, trying to stand, but the exertion was too much.
“Victory, at any cost,” Victus told her on the radio, his voice quiet and calm.
She watched him pull a tube from the latch, and the whole thing jolted. It happened in slow motion before her eyes as Victus couldn't hold on and the latch detached from the body of the mechanism. Victus fell. The latch fell. And finally, the whole mechanism fell, revealing the now inactive round bomb hanging up above.
Shepard screamed, curling into a ball on the ground there. Loosing Tarquin, the Primarch's son, had not been part of the mission. Her, unable to do anything about it had not been part of the mission.
Unknown Side Effect 3d/?
anonymous
April 26 2012, 03:04:00 UTC
“Cortez, the shuttle!” Garrus called, his voice in her comm. “Now!”
Shepard let Garrus gather her into his arms. She didn't have to fight it anymore, so she pressed her face against the heated metal of Garrus's armor. She couldn't sleep or relax because the pain kept coming. Someone should knock her out with a sedative when she got back on the ship.
Garrus arranged her with the help of Liara on a bench so that she was laying on her back with her knees propped up. Garrus sat down on one end of the bench and pillowed a blanket under her head. Liara sat on the other end, resting her hand on Shepard's foot up on the bench.
Chakwas started shouting orders and questions the moment Shepard was settled, telling Cortez to move his ass like it was on fire. “I can't do any scans while Shepard's off of the ship. Her vitals have been shooting up at particular points. You should have gotten her out of there sooner. What sort of pain is she in? You said cramping?”
Shepard sucked in a breath and held it to let the pain of another spasm wash over her. Garrus ran his hand through her hair, using an untucked portion of the blanket to wipe away sweat beading on her face.
Liara answered Chakwas. “Yes, she's only said it feels like cramps. She's been favoring her stomach when it happens. Can we sedate her? She seems to be in a lot of pain.”
Yes, blessed relief. Shepard thought as she tipped her head back to enjoy the moment of calm before her body was on fire again.
“No, that might not be wise. What does it feel like, Commander?” Chakwas asked. “Where exactly do you feel the pain?”
“It - I think it starts in my back,” Shepard responded. “Moves to the front. My stomach. Pressure and cramping. It starts to hurt all over.” She gritted her teeth at more seizing pain. “God, it - it feels like... like I'm giving birth. What the hell is wrong with me?”
“Yes, well, Commander,” Chakwas paused, the comm going quiet. “When was your last physical?”
“My last physical?” Shepard started to wrack her brain. “I had drug tests done while I was incarcerated. But a full scan hasn't... well, I haven't gotten one since I was with Cerberus. Miranda did one right after we destroyed the Collector's base.”
“Noticed any illnesses while you were incarcerated? Anything out of the ordinary?” Chakwas continued.
“Why is that important?” Shepard gasped.
“Until I get you back on the Normandy, I can't be certain, Commander. You may, in fact, be giving birth.”
“You're joking,” Shepard nearly laughed, covering her eyes with her hand. “That's the best idea you can come up with?”
“I'm completely serious, Commander.” And Chakwas sounded completely serious.
Shepard tilted her head back to look up at Garrus staring down at her. His hand had stilled in her hair and his eyes were hard as he returned her gaze. “That's impossible,” she whispered. Pain lanced through her belly again, and she clenched her hand around the edge of the bench at her side.
“I was never sick,” Shepard went through her pregnancy symptom list in her head when the pain subsided. “I haven't gained any - my stomach isn't huge! I haven't slept with - God, there hasn't been a human man since Kaidan years ago.”
“These spikes in your vitals have been growing closer and closer together,” Chakwas told her. “Seeing from my end, I can assume that the intensity of the pain has gotten worse since they first started. They are reading like contractions during a birthing would.”
Shepard had nothing to say to that; she was completely flabbergasted by the notion. Garrus didn't seem to have anything to say either.
Unknown Side Effect 3e/?
anonymous
April 26 2012, 03:07:09 UTC
Liara touched Shepard's knee, and asked softly, “Do you feel pregnant, Shepard?”
“No, I don't.” For one of the few times in her life, Shepard felt tears starting to well up in her eyes. “That's something you'd think I'd notice. Nothing. No swelling belly. I haven't felt... anything inside of me, moving around. No one's noticed me glowing?”
“Glowing?” Garrus looked down at her with a crooked browplate.
Liara shook her head. “It's a human, uh, metaphor or something. Pregnancy makes a woman seem to glow with, well, happiness, you know, emotions. Makes her seem all the more beautiful.”
“You still look beautiful to me,” Garrus said, returning to his ministrations of running his hand through her hair.
The feel of his fingers against her scalp was oddly relaxing, and Shepard smiled. She was about to tell him how silly that sounded, but she was cut off with that cramping pressure of pain that might possibly be a contraction.
“We're almost there, Commander,” Cortez's voice projected from the driver's seat.
Shepard had a break in cramping, and she placed a curious hand on her stomach. She couldn't feel anything with her armor on though. She started undoing clasps, removing her gauntlets and gloves. Garrus and Liara picked up on what she was doing, and without prompt, starting helping her remove her armor.
She was down to her undersuit and the armored plates on her thighs when she waved her arms and shouted for the other two to stop. “Uh, Chakwas? I...” Shepard didn't know how to explain the sudden sensation she felt of liquid trickling down her inner thigh. “I may have... peed in my armor?”
“Does it smell like urine?”
“It's trapped in my undersuit. I can't smell it.” Shepard unhooked and unzipped the top of the suit, folding it down to her waist so that she was sitting in a small white tank top.
“Try to stop it,” Chakwas suggested.
“Stop it?”
“Clench. Stop yourself from urinating.”
Shepard did as she was told, trying to “hold it in”, but the trickle of liquid didn't stop. Luckily, the suit was already absorbing the fluid to put it into a waste receptacle with her sweat. “That didn't do anything.”
The shuttle stopped and Chakwas stepped into the vehicle when the door opened. “All speculation still, but if you are going through labor, that's a pretty sure indication that your just water broke.”
~~~~~~
(A/N: That's all I've got for now. Not sure when I'll have free time to write again. I was on a roll today.)
Re: Unknown Side Effect A!A
anonymous
April 26 2012, 03:47:11 UTC
A!Anon here. Yeah, I'm looking forward to writing it, but at the same time, almost dreading it. The slight excitement growing for the characters when they realize that this is real, only to be shot down... I'm hoping I can convey everything alright.
Re: Unknown Side Effect 3e/?
anonymous
April 28 2012, 23:12:22 UTC
Having just gone through a miscarriage, I appreciate the warning, but I have to say this story is enthralling and endearing in some very strange ways.
Please keep writing. Garrus' reactions are so familiar. The gender seperation in moments like these are absolutely profound and you're conveying that and the love and affection and concern perfectly.
Unknown Side Effect A!A here
anonymous
May 1 2012, 01:41:21 UTC
Not sure when I'll get a chance to continue writing this. I started it up thinking I'd have like another week before we had to move apartments, but we got an ok at a place, and I had to start packing the very next day. Still unpacking here at the new place, and I'm still busy with general things that come with moving. Don't have my computer set up yet (using the fiance's), so the moment I find my (paper) notebook, I'll start writing in it.
Any suggestions are welcome. And I'm so pleased to see that some of you are enjoying it, despite what's to come.
Shepard caught sight of a heavy weapon that had been left on the ground - it looked like a Hydra. She scrambled out of cover to grab it and threw herself behind a pillar for cover. Garrus and Liara shouldn't have to take care of that thing alone. Thank God for thrown-out weapons.
She stepped out of cover so that the weapon could target the Atlas clanking its way towards Liara, and she started to charge it. The Hydra shot a blast like a cannon that threw Shepard to the ground as her abdomen clenched and pain sprouted again. She wheezed, trying to sit up and crawl back into cover.
Liara and Garrus shouted at her. Even Chakwas spoke up on her comm, “Commander.”
“I'm okay,” Shepard said over the radio, sitting and wiping sweat from her brow with an armored wrist. “I'm in cover.” She looked over her shoulder to see troops dropping out of a shuttle on the far left of the area. “How we doing, Lieutenant?”
“Overriding the bypass now, Commander,” Victus replied, strain and worry laced in his voice.
Shepard's omni-tool blinked and flashed a red warning that Liara required medical attention. She realized that Liara was directly underneath the shuttle. What the hell is she doing over there? Shepard thought, pushing the key that would disperse medi-gel in Liara's suit. Her tool just beeped negatively at her. “Garrus!” Shepard shouted on the comm. “I can't get her. I'm all out of medi-gel.”
Garrus growled, “Shit! You've been using that much?!”
“I... I hadn't noticed. Just go get her!” Shepard tried to give him cover fire as he ran and rolled his way to Liara, but the pain was back, reeking havoc on her insides. She focused on breathing, ignoring the pain; Garrus had to get to her.
Garrus slammed his bayonet on the end of his rifle into the trooper about to smash in Liara's head. He went back for Liara, pressing a medi-gel pack into the slot on her wrist that would manually disperse it. Liara groaned and rolled over, throwing a Singularity at the man trying to sneak up on Garrus.
Shepard watched them take on the last two remaining Cerberus soldiers. She could only wish that more weren't sent in.
“Commander! Firewall's down. I'm in!”
Shepard sighed in relief to hear Victus say that. She slowly stood, shaky on her feet as the constant barrage of cramping and pain was wearing her out. She winced at Victus cursing over the comm, informing her that Cerberus had hacked the mechanism and it was set to detonate. How much time? “Disarm it,” she told him uselessly, near-limping her way to him.
“No time,” was the answer he gave her. “I have to separate the trigger from the bomb. Now!”
Liara was still shooting at the few Cerberus troops dropping in, but Garrus helped Shepard onto the ledge with Victus before he returned to Liara.
“Cover me,” Victus said. He looked up at the bomb, made a decision, and grabbed the ladder on one of its supports to crawl to the top.
Shepard could only sit and watch as Liara and Garrus kept Cerberus back and Victus did something at the very top of the bomb to keep it from going off. She curled her hand into a fist against the wall beside her and whined in frustration over yet another painful cramp hitting her. She was a soldier; she was supposed to fight through pain like this. It wasn't the worst pain she had ever felt, but she had never felt anything like it before.
A loud clank behind her made her twist around to see Victus hanging off of a latch at the top. “Lieutenant!” She cried out, trying to stand, but the exertion was too much.
“Victory, at any cost,” Victus told her on the radio, his voice quiet and calm.
She watched him pull a tube from the latch, and the whole thing jolted. It happened in slow motion before her eyes as Victus couldn't hold on and the latch detached from the body of the mechanism. Victus fell. The latch fell. And finally, the whole mechanism fell, revealing the now inactive round bomb hanging up above.
Shepard screamed, curling into a ball on the ground there. Loosing Tarquin, the Primarch's son, had not been part of the mission. Her, unable to do anything about it had not been part of the mission.
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Shepard let Garrus gather her into his arms. She didn't have to fight it anymore, so she pressed her face against the heated metal of Garrus's armor. She couldn't sleep or relax because the pain kept coming. Someone should knock her out with a sedative when she got back on the ship.
Garrus arranged her with the help of Liara on a bench so that she was laying on her back with her knees propped up. Garrus sat down on one end of the bench and pillowed a blanket under her head. Liara sat on the other end, resting her hand on Shepard's foot up on the bench.
Chakwas started shouting orders and questions the moment Shepard was settled, telling Cortez to move his ass like it was on fire. “I can't do any scans while Shepard's off of the ship. Her vitals have been shooting up at particular points. You should have gotten her out of there sooner. What sort of pain is she in? You said cramping?”
Shepard sucked in a breath and held it to let the pain of another spasm wash over her. Garrus ran his hand through her hair, using an untucked portion of the blanket to wipe away sweat beading on her face.
Liara answered Chakwas. “Yes, she's only said it feels like cramps. She's been favoring her stomach when it happens. Can we sedate her? She seems to be in a lot of pain.”
Yes, blessed relief. Shepard thought as she tipped her head back to enjoy the moment of calm before her body was on fire again.
“No, that might not be wise. What does it feel like, Commander?” Chakwas asked. “Where exactly do you feel the pain?”
“It - I think it starts in my back,” Shepard responded. “Moves to the front. My stomach. Pressure and cramping. It starts to hurt all over.” She gritted her teeth at more seizing pain. “God, it - it feels like... like I'm giving birth. What the hell is wrong with me?”
“Yes, well, Commander,” Chakwas paused, the comm going quiet. “When was your last physical?”
“My last physical?” Shepard started to wrack her brain. “I had drug tests done while I was incarcerated. But a full scan hasn't... well, I haven't gotten one since I was with Cerberus. Miranda did one right after we destroyed the Collector's base.”
“Noticed any illnesses while you were incarcerated? Anything out of the ordinary?” Chakwas continued.
“Why is that important?” Shepard gasped.
“Until I get you back on the Normandy, I can't be certain, Commander. You may, in fact, be giving birth.”
“You're joking,” Shepard nearly laughed, covering her eyes with her hand. “That's the best idea you can come up with?”
“I'm completely serious, Commander.” And Chakwas sounded completely serious.
Shepard tilted her head back to look up at Garrus staring down at her. His hand had stilled in her hair and his eyes were hard as he returned her gaze. “That's impossible,” she whispered. Pain lanced through her belly again, and she clenched her hand around the edge of the bench at her side.
“I was never sick,” Shepard went through her pregnancy symptom list in her head when the pain subsided. “I haven't gained any - my stomach isn't huge! I haven't slept with - God, there hasn't been a human man since Kaidan years ago.”
“These spikes in your vitals have been growing closer and closer together,” Chakwas told her. “Seeing from my end, I can assume that the intensity of the pain has gotten worse since they first started. They are reading like contractions during a birthing would.”
Shepard had nothing to say to that; she was completely flabbergasted by the notion. Garrus didn't seem to have anything to say either.
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“No, I don't.” For one of the few times in her life, Shepard felt tears starting to well up in her eyes. “That's something you'd think I'd notice. Nothing. No swelling belly. I haven't felt... anything inside of me, moving around. No one's noticed me glowing?”
“Glowing?” Garrus looked down at her with a crooked browplate.
Liara shook her head. “It's a human, uh, metaphor or something. Pregnancy makes a woman seem to glow with, well, happiness, you know, emotions. Makes her seem all the more beautiful.”
“You still look beautiful to me,” Garrus said, returning to his ministrations of running his hand through her hair.
The feel of his fingers against her scalp was oddly relaxing, and Shepard smiled. She was about to tell him how silly that sounded, but she was cut off with that cramping pressure of pain that might possibly be a contraction.
“We're almost there, Commander,” Cortez's voice projected from the driver's seat.
Shepard had a break in cramping, and she placed a curious hand on her stomach. She couldn't feel anything with her armor on though. She started undoing clasps, removing her gauntlets and gloves. Garrus and Liara picked up on what she was doing, and without prompt, starting helping her remove her armor.
She was down to her undersuit and the armored plates on her thighs when she waved her arms and shouted for the other two to stop. “Uh, Chakwas? I...” Shepard didn't know how to explain the sudden sensation she felt of liquid trickling down her inner thigh. “I may have... peed in my armor?”
“Does it smell like urine?”
“It's trapped in my undersuit. I can't smell it.” Shepard unhooked and unzipped the top of the suit, folding it down to her waist so that she was sitting in a small white tank top.
“Try to stop it,” Chakwas suggested.
“Stop it?”
“Clench. Stop yourself from urinating.”
Shepard did as she was told, trying to “hold it in”, but the trickle of liquid didn't stop. Luckily, the suit was already absorbing the fluid to put it into a waste receptacle with her sweat. “That didn't do anything.”
The shuttle stopped and Chakwas stepped into the vehicle when the door opened. “All speculation still, but if you are going through labor, that's a pretty sure indication that your just water broke.”
~~~~~~
(A/N: That's all I've got for now. Not sure when I'll have free time to write again. I was on a roll today.)
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I'm hoping I can convey everything alright.
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This is a sensitive issue but you are writing it so damn well. I am looking forward to an update
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Please keep writing. Garrus' reactions are so familiar. The gender seperation in moments like these are absolutely profound and you're conveying that and the love and affection and concern perfectly.
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Any suggestions are welcome. And I'm so pleased to see that some of you are enjoying it, despite what's to come.
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